Yep, sounds like you have a bad infestation of scale. Personally, I would probably start over, It takes time and diligence to get rid of them ALL and it sounds like you have a lot! When you think you have finally gotten rid of them all, in a week they can be back in full force again because you missed some. Easy to do! The ones your seeing are under the brown bump is their protective covering, others could still be in the crawler stage and they are almost transparent and very tiny, they are the ones you can't see. Soapy water, or alcohol mixed with water are a couple ways to try and get rid of them, also, your finger nail could scrape them off as well. The sticky stuff is honeydew they secrete after sucking out the juice from the plants leaves. Nasty critters! Billy Rae

White spots, especially if on the undersides of the fronds, could be mealybugs, a type of scale. Sagos can make great long-term container plants, but they do get large over time. Best to move them outside in the summer -- to shade first, then over 3 or 4 weeks to part sun or full sun (to prevent leaf scorch). Sago fronds will begin to freeze at between 15 and 20 degrees. So if you get that cold, bring it in. I usually leave mine out until night lows are predicted to go to lower 20s. As new growth develops in spring or summer it is important that the plant gets lots of light or the fronds will get very long stretching to the light. And they will be all out of proportion with the rest of the fronds. Here's mine that I started from seed. You can see new growth beginning to stretch out.

Hello. Sorry I do not know how old this thread is . I don't see the year they were posted. So I have a fairly new meyer lemon tree I got from Horrocks in Grand Rapids MI. Its been about 3 weeks. I noticed the other day some sap or sticky film on 2--3 leaves at the top end. I examined area around but did not see any scales but they are probably there if its caused by scale. I also got a Calamindine at the same time but looks ok. I also have a Kafir lime tree I've had since summer and is fine. I have kept the other 2 citrus away from the ML just in case. I have read several posts about remedies like using neem or horticultural oil and soap solution. Any thoughts?

" I once had one survivea cold winter in Siuth Jersey in which it reached -6f! ,,,The mulched Sago flushed a new set of leaves to replace the leaves it lost in the bitterly cold winter." What was it mulched with, 3 rolls of corning fiberglass lain in a criss-cross pattern, forming a 6' high, 15' diameter mound? Yes enough mulch can protect almost anything, within reason, but it eventually becomes a not practical thing to do. At least with a plant like that. Probably more impressive: I had a small Cycas panzhihuaensis recover from 3F with very little mulching. Alas, I gave up on getting them to survive around here because it's a little wetter in winter here than western suburban DC and they just need to be drier than I can give them, apparently. Furthermore that might be a plant that doesn't get much hardier with age, or even gets less hardy with age...for various reasons too complicated to go into. Definitely more impressive: the last C. panzhihuaensis I had came back up from the ground after a full two years of "playing dead". Apparently it has some ability for the growth point to go into a long term senescence or dormancy. Maybe an adaptation to things like volcanic eruptions which caused brief mini ice-ages? They have been on this earth for a while. Alas, not surprisingly polar winter #1 finished it off for good. In retrospect I probably should have dug it up and coddled it for a few more years, but I was tired of dealing with them by then. (yes I know that post was from 2006, so it was a rhetorical reply) BTW you see large ones along the Gulf, and inland to some degree like Baton Rouge, so they can survive down to 15F as long as it's infrequent. Probably a zn 9 plant but cultivated in some sheltered, warmer parts of 8. I'm pretty sure that mature outdoor ones do _not_ defoliate with a brief dip to 25F.